Is this the start of something big? Or something else big?

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It’s hard to believe that the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon began and ended almost four years ago. The relatively short media lifespan of those occupations of public parks and squares in the United States and around the world was a mixed bag, in composition, politics and effects. During its heady peak, there was talk of a revolutionary change, with the neoliberal financiers and their greedy lifestyle being tossed into the dustbin of history. The idea of direct participatory democracy would replace the bought-off plutocracy whose reign was destroying out futures and the planet. Some participants argued that even the cops were on our side. Then the cops got their orders. With the visible exception of one retired policeman from Philadelphia, the men in blue took out their nightsticks, tear gas and pepper spray. They then proceeded to trash the occupied spaces, brutalize the occupiers, almost kill a protesting man in Oakland, and pepper spray persons for no apparent reason other than what appeared to be the cops’ collective thrill.